In the field of model railroading it may be desirable to accurately model a train both visually and sonically, acoustically or otherwise audibly. Existing solutions for modeling of train sound effects are generally focused on the simulation of the locomotive—either steam, electric, or diesel. Current model locomotive sound systems, for example, are coupled with the control system for the engine and may feature sound effects triggered by the user control device or locomotive motor control such as in the case of prime mover sound effects triggered by the electrical load demand of the motor. Sound systems are typically based on digital recorded sound playback as is widely used in many fields. Typically the cost of these high quality sound systems and the necessity of their integration in the engine controller have limited their use to just the locomotive or a few special case car applications. Existing systems which provide for car sound effects are based on physical contact sensors or tilt switches that are incapable of producing the range of sounds produced by the disclosed embodiments due to their lack of sensitivity and binary nature. For example in the embodiments described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,318 and RE40,841, a pendulum arrangement is used whereby the movement is detected by the pendulum making electrical contact with a surrounding ring of one or more metal contacts in response to movement. This system provides a 2 axis force detector. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,318, this detection produces a single output regardless of the direction of force direction in the measured axes. The detector disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. RE40,841 is more nuanced and provides discreet outputs for sectors of the measuring ring, which gives a rough direction of the force, again in a 2 axis plane, but still provides only a binary trigger output. The system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,004 uses external magnets and Hall-Effect switches (placed on the layout by the model railroader) to provide a trigger that to indicate that some sound is desired at a given location. All these systems provide a simple trigger that is not sensitive to the degree to which a force is applied, only responding to whether it exceeds a physical threshold. All forces below the threshold are ignored, and all forces above the threshold are treated the same. Such systems are not capable of being used to provide input to a model where the goal is to simulate the scale forces applied to the modeled car. To achieve this, it is desirable to provide simultaneous qualitative measurement of the forces in all 3 axes of the car.
A more fundamental problem with sound reproduction of the entire train is that the expense of providing for an individual sound system for each car may increase expense and complexity and make the concept impractical. The disclosed embodiments address these concerns by allowing a single sound unit to provide simulated sound for a block of cars. Further, this also allows for sound to be provided for a car where locating a speaker and the control system may be difficult, for example, an empty flat car in HO scale, which 1:87 scale, would have little room to mount the device.
As discussed above, existing systems are primarily directed toward the sound simulation of the engine and are typically also tied into a control system that also controls the movement of the motor. In these systems, sounds controlled via a remote control unit by the model railroader allow him/her to drive the train in a realistic manner. In some of these existing systems, the prime mover (steam/electric/diesel) sound output is modified according to the load on the model's electric motor and, therefore, also provide for the control system used to control both the engine and trigger sounds. E.g. blow the whistle or ring a bell at the will of the operator (See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,555,815; 5,773,939; 5,855,004; 5,952,797; 6,457,681; 6,616,505; 6,619,594; 6,655,640; 7,307,394; 7,656,110; and RE38660). Others existing systems may include a wheel encoder to sense speed in order to synchronize steam engine “chuffing” noises. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,094) Other similar systems exist in the toy field which also provide for machine appropriate sounds (A remote car for instance: See U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,920) that responds to the remote input from an operator. The sounds played by these systems are either stored locally in normal or compressed format and can consist of fragments pieced together to provide continuous background sounds (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,431), may further be varied in playback speed to account for changes in velocity and also may consist of multiple sets of sound files representing different speed ranges. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,754,094 and 6,230,140) Other engine control systems generate the sound in the controller and transmit the sound data to the engine control unit through the track (See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,457,681 and 7,210,656).
Some existing systems also provide for external triggering of sound functions (or other operations) via non-contact (e.g. Hall-Effect) (See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,855,004; 7,429,931; and 7,859,424) and inertial switches (pendulums, and tilt switches), light and heat based switches are also proposed (See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,832,431; 5,267,318; 8,199,110; and RE40841). Other systems may use random triggering, with modified playback of samples, pitch, timbre, etc. to create background sounds (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,310,604).
Exemplary existing sound systems may be disclosed on one or more of the US patents listed in the table below.
U.S. Pat.No.Filing dateIssue dateSummaryTitle5,195,920Oct. 18,Mar. 23,Contains soundsRadio19901993triggered bycontrolledremote control.model vehiclehavingcoordinatedsound effectssystem5,555,815Oct. 13,Sep. 17,Engine soundsModel train19941996triggered by userhorn controlinterventionsystem5,754,094Aug. 29,May 19,Uses multipleSound19951998sets of sounds forgeneratingdifferent speeds.apparatusUses wheelsensors forvelocity.5,773,939Jun. 7, 1995Jun. 30,CommandCommand1998control systemcontrol formodelrailroadingusing ACtrack powersignals forencodingpseudo-digitalsignals5,832,431Nov. 30,Nov. 3,GeneratesNon-looped19931998statistical/randomcontinuoussound effects -sound byuse of externalrandomstimuli (light,sequencing ofheat, operatordigital soundinput)records5,855,004May 5,Dec. 29,DCC triggeringSound19971998of sounds - alsorecording andmentionsreproduction“inertialsystem formovement”model traintriggering inusingaddition tointegratedswitches ordigitalbinary input.commandcontrol5,952,797May 29,Sep. 14,Control systemModel19971999vehicle,particularlymodel railwayvehicleU.S. Pat. No. 6,230,140Jun. 11,May 8,Uses multipleContinuous19982001sets of soundssound byjoined randomlyconcatenatingor statistically toselectedmake continuousdigital soundbackgroundsegmentssound effectsU.S. Pat. No. 6,457,681Dec. 7,Oct. 1, 2002Sounds are sentControl,2000over the tracks tosound, andthe train inoperatingaddition tosystem forengine controlmodel trainssignals.U.S. Pat. No. 6,616,505Sep. 3, 1999Sep. 9, 2003This is a DCCModel traindecoder forsound boardLionelinterfaceTrainmastersystem. i.e.control systemreceiver - usertriggered sounds.6,619,594Sep. 9, 2002Sep. 16,Handheld remoteControl,2003controls enginesound, and(and soundoperatingtriggering)system formodel trains6,655,640Sep. 9, 2002Dec. 2,Handheld remoteControl,2003controls enginesound, and(and soundoperatingtriggering)system formodel trains7,210,656Jun. 21,May 1,Sounds streamedControl,20042007to engine. Enginesound, andcontrol system,operatinguser soundsystem fortriggering.model trains7,298,103May 8,Nov. 20,DCC ControllerControl and20062007motorarrangementfor use inmodel train7,307,394Apr. 20,Dec. 11,DCC decoderControl and20072007motorarrangementfor use inmodel train7,310,604Oct. 19,Dec. 18,RandomStatistical20012007triggering,sound eventmodifiedmodelingplayback ofsystem andsamples, pitch,methodstimbre, etc.7,429,931Jun. 30,Sep. 30,Non-contactProximity20052008trigger of soundscontrol of on-boardprocessor-based modeltrain soundand controlsystem7,656,110Oct. 23,Feb. 2, 2010DCC decoderControl and2007motorarrangementfor use inmodel train7,859,424Sep. 24,Dec. 28,Non-contactProximity20082010trigger of soundscontrol of on-boardprocessor-based modeltrain soundand controlsystem8,199,110Dec. 7,Jun. 12,Pendulum sensorMethod and20042012apparatus fordetectingmovements inan electronicdeviceRE38660Jun. 9, 2000Nov. 23,Switch basedSound2004triggers, DCCrecording andsystemreproductionsystem formodel trainusingintegrateddigitalcommandcontrolRE40841Aug. 3,Jul. 14,Derives fromSound20042009cattle patentrecording andreproductionsystem formodel trainusingintegrateddigitalcommandcontrol